Fingerprint tech piloted at UK prisons
26 June 2019 15:44 GMT

At HMP Isle of Wight, an automatic drug dispensing unit has been installed which uses secure fingerprint technology to automatically deliver medication to prisoners.

In a statement, the UK government's Ministry of Justice said "Not only can this increase flexibility, allowing prisoners to improved access medicines; it can also reduce security challenges around multiple prisoners receiving prescriptions at one time".

The unit is being piloted until October this year before being considered for a wider national roll out.

HMPPS has said there is also a need to introduce biometric technologies to improve the speed, security and reliability of the prison visitor access operation, in order to help prison staff manage what can often be a complex visitor verification process.

In December last year, GBG IDScan’s biometric technology, Scannet, was deployed at a UK prison selected by the MOJ and HMPPS.